How much do you Care? Really??

I'm not asking about how much you care about your kids and loved ones, but how much do you care about your job, the initiatives that you believe in, politics...the world around you? Does your care go beyond your personal space? Are you truly willing to go the distance for your job...or do you just go home at 5pm because that's quitting time? What about other initiatives...if they take you past your dinner hour, or late into the night; do you forgo personal comforts to achieve those goals? Do you? Do you really?

How may times have you been held over for some "emergency"? Did you care? Was it meaningful to you to be one of the people who were held over? OR, was it just a huge inconvenience...because "I don't get paid for this"? How committed are you to the world in which you live?

Do you believe? Or, is it all just a "Job"? Do you care? Do you care that your efforts may make the difference? Or, is it just..."quitting time"?

I wonder.

I think I used to know at least part of this answer, but anymore, I'm not sure I do. So, I'd love to hear your opinions.

How much do you care?

If the World blew up tomorrow (economically or literally), would you care? Is it all just too far away from your personal space to worry about? And, what matter of 'degree' would make you care? Would it be someone in your State, your neighborhood, or on your front lawn? Which degree would matter to you?

These are the questions we are facing today, and I honestly believe so many people are completely oblivious to these questions.

So...how much do YOU care?

Edit - Hard question, I know.

If the world blew up tomorrow, I wouldn't be here anymore. So I am not going to worry about something I can do nothing about. Same goes for who gets elected president, I am only one person, my vote is kind of worthless...but I am not giving it to someone who has dementia. If the person with dementia wins, I will have lost my faith in the people who voted for him.

We stock food mostly to save money, and face it, if there is a nuclear war, most the ground will be irradiated and we won't be able to eat it without screwing up our guts and organs. We can't really prepare for something like that. So, what happens happens...But I do not believe poking a bear is wise. nor irritating the dragon is smart.

As far as my job, I do care about that, it would be a bitch to have to go back to work at my age anymore. I do like to cook and even mow the grass and plow the snow, but I don't care if it does not snow, in fact I wish their promise of global warming would come true. It actually got up to eighty two around here today in some places, but in the woods at our house, we had seventy four degrees. But I don't care.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I worked myself to near death for many years.
So many silly accidents that could have been avoided.

Do I regret it?
NOPE.

The last accident has put me out of the game for a bit.
Employers see you as nothing more than a worm on the end of a hook.

Ive been out of work due to injury and TBH...I feel better.
No stress apart from pigeons cooing at 5am.

Its going to get worse.
It started here with the zero contract hours.

FTR...the OP is not really about work, but 'care' more in general. Work was just one example (of many). I tried to distinguish this from children and loved ones...I'm talking about everything outside of those things.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Do I care?


Well, back in the 1990's I was part of an amature team attempting to design, build, and launch a "homemade" rocket past the Karman Line.

Something that had never been done before.

In fact, at the time, the very concept (a true spacecraft built by anyone other than a government or military organization) was so inconceivable that the US government did not even have regulations in place to administer such a feat.

So, in addition to building our space program, we ended up working with the FAA to lay the groundwork by which companies like SpaceX now operate.

I guess you could say that I have had, and thus still do have experience caring.



Once you dedicate a significant portion of your life to a goal, whether you achieve that goal or not, it is difficult to stop caring. Not just about your goal, but about all the goals that might follow.

These are all good answers here so far. There is no wrong answer (well, maybe there is, but we'll see).

It's really more of an honest question.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I used to be the guy who volunteered for OT. Damn near worked myself to death at times. I used to rag on some coworkers for only seeing their jobs as paychecks--that they should care more.

As I've gotten older I realized, you can care all you want and work yourself to death, but few will ever care about your productivity or how dedicated you are. Most companies and bosses see you as expendable and replaceable.

You can care about your job and what you do, just don't expect bossman to care back.

At least that's been my experience.

This is why a lot of people don't care or do the quiet quitting approach. They care more about their lives and their families and I can't blame them for that anymore.

I've learned it's important to separate your work ethic from your identity, to a degree.

Because at the end of the day no one is going to care about all the OT you put in, but others in your life may care about how much you missed out on while chasing someone else's validation.

It's a tightrope walk for sure.

There was a time I would have given my life for my country tis of thee...home of the brave and land of the free etc etc.. In my old age I have come to realize you can not fix stupid so as long as the dollar has international value and my passport works there are more pleasant things to think and care about than the "Big Picture" that will still be hanging after me and mine are long gone..youtu.be...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My job? Yeah I HAVE to stay until the job is done because people depend on my job.

You have to care about other people too. I meet a lot of different people and the thing is, a lot of times people are focused on their own lives to their own detriment. Like they don't interact with strangers or other people outside their own little bubble and I think that's BS. I say hi to strangers. I chat with lonely looking old people in the store. I help people who are truly down on their luck with both money and encouragement because my motto about money is "easy come, easy go" which pissed my ex off to no end.

I just think about how much I loved my dad and how would I want a stranger to treat him. Or how I want to be treated.

But if nobody cares about anybody else and nobody is willing to help anybody else what kind of world are we living in? I mean you can help someone without even knowing it just by being nice. Just being an ear to listen to them or give them encouragement and stuff.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Transactional. If I can be of assistance to an other (without triggering self-harm), I'll give it a try.

Brutal truth is that many others aren't worth the effort; they've been indoctrinated to be useless tools.

Always try to assist animals in distress. Amazing how some of them will gaze once helped.

Cheers

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You are asking some good questions... Unfortunately we've all succumbed to Capitalism and every value is only measurable in monetary terms...

Soooo, your question is kind of answering itself. We care if the exchange rate is acceptable.

It'll really hurt once inflation devalues our humanity and basic values we held not in our purse but in our heart...

It's coming and it's ugly but it's inevitable under the actual economic premise...
happy end of a cycle, ready for that big war all in the name of tabula rasa... Then we can finally belive the lie again, maybe for another 100 years...

It is our decision we went down this path and we'll only ever really care about anything ever again if we manage to rid our self's of the poisonous dynamics in our economy... But alas it's the best we got, after me the déluge, who cares?

Humans... clever enough to realize something is broken, but too dumb to understand what it is...

I care enough about my job, to know that if I don't do a good job, the company could suffer, and then I wouldn't have a job anymore.
I'm older and don't want to look for another one.
But I get compensated if I have to go over and above.

Would I care if the world blows up tomorrow? Sure. I'm doing what I can to help my family and friends. Not monetarily, but food, medicine, the essentials.
Or I croak, and then I will no longer care about anything.
Que Sera, Sera.

a reply to: 727Sky

Thanks for the video, Sky. It was very informative...and painted a rather bleak picture.

I'm altruistic; I find it harder and harder to make excuses for stupid people that want everyone else to carry their burdens for them, but feel VERY sorry for society as a whole.

There's a HUGE difference between a hand up and a hand out. lt's the bleeding hearts that feel sorry for anybody with a hard luck story who go out of their way to 'fix' their problems for them tht are actually putting a boot on their neck and holding them back from taking responsibilty for their lives.

Less and less each day.

Just waiting on this guy to show up.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I remember I was leaving work one day and A guy I worked with had been in a little fender bender. Anyway, he couldn't drive his truck due to the fender rubbing on his tire. This was right next to work. I pulled over and helped him bend his fender enough so he could get home. He looked me in the eye and said, you were the only one who stopped, everyone else just drove right by. He thanked me and made his way home.

I try to care, but sometimes it is hard.

Listen to the words of "the cat's in the cradle" by Harry Chapin. What is thee to care about? Family, job, life, other people, the political situation, etc, etc.. It comes down to your choice, what do you value in your life to care about, what is your goal? To have a happy successful family life? To have a successful job? It all depends on your mind set to what you care about.
To all you people I'll give you my thought on work, "you go to work to live not live to go to work". The main reason for that is you can be the most valuable person in the job, think yourself indispensable, but when it comes down to the wire and believe me it will for everybody, you are just a number and they will wave you goodbye without a thought to you being the best they ever had. So what do you care about?

The very bottom line comes when you've retired, THEN it will show up what you should have cared about. Too late.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I care a lot these days my brother...but turning around looking back at just my tiny, insignificant spot like a grain of sand in a multiverse of beaches...is SOBERING.

We matter. Only a a tiny single part of the whole...in that case? What we think really doesn't matter...so, I wish for life to blossom and the "collective" to advance...but I don't think people really care any longer.

Look at us.....! Hey Clay...take care eh..best

Everyday when I wake up, I look forward to going to work. It's that much fun, pays exceptionally well, great community of union brothers and sisters and making a product that millions of people will potentially use. Plus, I get residuals for work I completed in 2000 when I first started.

If the Local didn't require taking time off, Id work all the overtime and double shifts I could. Retirement sounds like hell on earth.

Not that hard a question. The answer is not at all. The population of the world has been totalled several times that we know of, it will happen again. That the human ‘world’ disintegrates and comes crashing down around our ears is irrelevant in the scheme of things.

I’m an avowed misanthrope though, so your mileage may vary.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk